weight loss support?

[Bikingmomof3]

I am not on WWs, but I am working on losing weight and gaining more lean muscle.

[Dogmama]

I am not on WWs, but I am working on losing weight and gaining more lean muscle.

Are you lifting weights?

[biking4health]

I'd love to have the suppport of others on my weight loss journey and love to bike. I have 90+ pounds to lose and just started seriously biking (at least seriously for a newbie) about a month ago.

I lost 95 pounds on WW in 1977, but sad to say gained it all back. I'm using myfooddiary.com to track what I eat and my exercise. I get frustrated because I lose very slowly..only 11 pounds since mid-May. The difference for me this time is I can't "go on a diet" I have to make this a lifestyle change and not be so hard on myself.

I look forward to hearing about others on this journey.

Carol

[run it, ride it]

Bit of a tangent here, but:

I know many of you have children, and it looks like many of you have been involved with WW. This is an excellent combination to (pardon the pun) stop the cycle of unhealthy lifestyle choices.

My mother's parents are post-depression food-pushers (the "clean your plate! Starving children in *insert third world country*..." type). She was always overweight--until she lost 90lbs with WW and became a group counsellor for the next fifteen years. She will never be 'skinny' because of her Graves Disease, but she has always been FIT.

There was never any 'junk food' in our house growing up--no potato chips, no greasy fries, no sugar-loaded cereal. All we got for a treat were chocolate-coated granola bars! My brother and I begrudged this at the time, but in retrospect she taught us excellent habits that we will carry for the rest of our lives. I know I have the same problem as my mother--if the junk food is availible, I'll eat every last morsel of it. But since I didn't grow up with it in the first place, keeping away from it is much more managable.

Further, I was a VERY picky eater as a kid. Instead of getting mad, my mother had me help out in making meals to eliminate the parts I didn't like (ONIONS!) and she never, never requested I finish a plate of food. I'm still a picky eater--why is it the double-standard that it's good for adults to be picky but bad for kids? As long as everyone is meeting their nutritional requirements, don't force anything!

You are a huge influence to your children, and by keeping junk out of the house, excercising daily, maintining a positive attitude toward both, and involving them in their own diet and excercising choices you are investing in their future as much as your own.

You go, girls!

[CyclChyk]

In my happily married state I supported the theory that women get fat once they get hitched. I now am very actively working at getting healthy again.

We are eating healthy (not following any "diets", WW or otherwise) and biking at least 5 nights a week for a minimum of 10 miles each time. Sometimes 15miles if time allows.

In 2 months I have lost 26 pounds and 1 & 1/2 pants size. I only have 50 more lbs to go before I can fit in my lovely button fly size 8 gap jeans I was wearing the day I met my hubby.

I feel great!! If you have the right mindset you will succeed. Pooks, feel free to PM or otherwise and I will offer any support I can!

[pooks]

We are eating healthy (not following any "diets", WW or otherwise) and biking at least 5 nights a week for a minimum of 10 miles each time. Sometimes 15miles if time allows.

In 2 months I have lost 26 pounds and 1 & 1/2 pants size.

This is very inspirational! I realize you aren't doing a true "diet" but what do you consider "eating healthy?" Are you doing things like using Splenda, limiting fats, etc? Or just sticking to basic foods, and eating smaller portions?

Or not thinking about any of those things -- just making sure you've got healthy food?

I guess what I'm wondering is, even though you say you're not dieting, do you do some basic things like portion control?

A year and a half ago I started eating healthy (no diet-just a complete lifestyle change). Six meals a day, vitamins, and a lot of water.

Same questions! Eating healthy means so many different things!

Here's a question (if you don't mind me asking). What would y'all consider an easy, typical lunch that you eat as part of your "eating healthy?"

[Bikingmomof3]

Same questions! Eating healthy means so many different things!

Here's a question (if you don't mind me asking). What would y'all consider an easy, typical lunch that you eat as part of your "eating healthy?"

Here was my meal today-I have yet to have snack 3.

I also drink 32 ounces of water with each meal and I take a multivitamin

Breakfast: Yogurt and Egg Beaters with Morningstar Breakfast Patty
Snack: handful of almonds (unsalted)
Lunch: 2 slices organic whole wheat bread with Boarshead low sodum turkey breast (2 oz), 1 slice of Boarshead Natural, no sodium added Swiss cheese, and tomato. Salad with 1 tbsp craisins, and 1 tablespoon almond accents, and 1/2 a cucumber.
Snack: protein pudding (sugar free pudding made with 2 cups ff milf, and 2 scoops whey protein powder-makes 4 servings)
Dinner: 3 ounces grilled chicken, baked potato with 1 tbsp ff sour cream, 1 cup steamed broccoli
Snack 3: 1/2 cup frozen yogurt

Does that help?

[Dogmama]

Eating healthy means so many different things!

Here's a question (if you don't mind me asking). What would y'all consider an easy, typical lunch that you eat as part of your "eating healthy?"

BikingMom's lunch sounded good. And it would be transportable - I take my lunch and snacks to work. I always plan a protein snack in the afternoon because it helps blunt end-of-day carb cravings.

I also like to make tuna with ff mayo & pickle relish & an apple for lunch. Sometimes I'll make a chicken salad & I'll have several days of lunches.

It is important that each meal have a nice amount of protein. It helps stabilize blood sugar and helps rebuild muscle.

[CyclChyk]

This is very inspirational! I realize you aren't doing a true "diet" but what do you consider "eating healthy?" Are you doing things like using Splenda, limiting fats, etc? Or just sticking to basic foods, and eating smaller portions?

Sadly ,I have cut out alcohol (I used to have at leat 1-2 glasses wine each nite); no more frappachinos from Starbucks; no more glazed donuts. Just fish, chicken, green veggies; no more pasta (GOD I miss pasta); only whole grain bread; no more cheese.................... Initially finding snack foods that satisfied me was soooooo hard.... but now that I have been at this for a couple months, I find I actually crave fish for supper instead of Domino's.... fajitas without the tortilla rather than chinese takeout......... granola bars rather than Blizzards..........Subway for lunch instead of Micky D's....Promise fat free butter instead of Country Crock... sweet potatoes instead of white potatoes....

I am also doing the "6 meals" theory - 3 main meals with 3 snacks....... Occasionally I have cravings. Tonite I had a jumbo Texas margarita with my fajitas....I will have to push out an extra 2-3 miles on the bike tomorrow to make up for it. But I so enjoy biking now and seeing the weight come off is so motivating.

And yeh, smaller portions helps.

[Bikingmomof3]

You are a huge influence to your children, and by keeping junk out of the house, excercising daily, maintining a positive attitude toward both, and involving them in their own diet and excercising choices you are investing in their future as much as your own.

You go, girls!

I absolutely agree!

My brief history...

I am the only one overweight in my house (I am 15 pounds over) . We do not have junk food, everything is whole wheat (my children do not even know what white bread tastes like) and I have never made my children clean their plates. I was 99 pounds when I pecame pregnant (I was underweight-I danced ballet and thouught to be overweight), doubled my size with my first pregnancy and barely shed any weight before I became pregnant with the twins. Then I kept the weight on for 10 years (I did not each much, so my metabolism shut down) before I became serious about my health. Once my boys were older I was able to breathe and realize I needed to be healthy for me and my family. A year and a half ago I started eating healthy (no diet-just a complete lifestyle change). Six meals a day, vitamins, and a lot of water. I began exercising (at home, I cannot afford a gym membership) every single day and shed over 60+ inches. My family has been very supportive and I have become increasingly active. I went from a size 20 to my current size 6.
I am now focusing on building more lean muscle and toning.

That is my story in a nutshell. Hopefully this makes sense. Late start to my morning with no caffeine yet.

[Thistle]

I absolutely agree!

A year and a half ago I started eating healthy (no diet-just a complete lifestyle change). Six meals a day, vitamins, and a lot of water. I began exercising (at home, I cannot afford a gym membership) every single day and shed over 60+ inches. My family has been very supportive and I have become increasingly active. I went from a size 20 to my current size 6.
I am now focusing on building more lean muscle and toning.

That is so inspiring. And that's how i feel, i dont want to diet, i want to eat healthy food and exercise every day. I feel inspired by seeing others here who want to do it too. Thank god for bike riding - it's the one form of exercise i love

If anyone has any tips for overcoming the need to stuff unhealthy food in my mouth everytime someone upsets me i'd really appreciate it - i know it's cos i dont have the courage to tell them how i really feel . i'm definitely an emotional eater no doubt about that.

But having read other people's posts, i'm inspired to make a start on eating healthy again.

[pooks]

I'm a lifetime member of WW but I never felt "great" on that program.

Years later my husband wanted to do the Zone Diet because so many people at work had raved about it. There were some extreme results -- one woman who had been diagnosed with MS, was on the appropriate drugs, was having to take a nap or rest twice a day at work, etc. went on it, lost weight that she'd been carrying since she was a teenager, and ended up off all meds, and (as my husband said) so "cheerful and high energy she's disgusting." A guy who was a runner ran his fastest time ever -- and he was in his 40s, a time when people aren't expected to be doing that.

So we went on it, loved it, and I did lose a lot of weight and felt good. But like most things, after a couple of years we started wanting the white breads and pastas again "for variety," and eased back into our old habits. (With the Zone, you give up "bad carbs/high glycemic" and eat lots of "good carbs/low glycemic" -- so you're still eating lots of veggies, fruits, etc., but give up most starches.)

Thing is, I felt great on that diet, or way of eating. Sigh. It just seems as if any "change" is destined to fail for me, because eventually I'm going to slide back into bad habits.

Anyway, what I'm really interested in personally is more the "good healthy food and exercise" that some of you have mentioned, rather than a specific diet. I think I'll always be aware of limiting starches and emphasizing good fruits and veggies, though. A lot of the Zone just made sense to me, even though I didn't stick to it.

One thing I found helpful though was to figure out a few good meals and snacks that I liked, and make sure I could always fall back on them in a pinch. When first starting the Zone I was told "don't make it complicated -- pick out a few meals and repeat them a few times if you want, to get into it."

I think that's what I need to do now. Figure out a few meals I really like, buy the right food to prepare them, and just stick to them for a week so I'm not thinking about food all the time.

That's the worst part of any "diet" for me -- I end up thinking about food all the time, because I'm constantly worrying about what we're going to eat, planning it in my head, etc!

[latelatebloomer]

theav - good thread! I tell my trainer that I'm going to write a book about my fitness journey called "Melting an Iceberg" because it's been both so full of learning experiences and SO slow. I may well have lost 100 lbs by year's end - a journey of about 5 years from when I first walked into a YMCA - and I'll always be, as my husband so sweetly said recently, applelicious. I focus on achieving ever-ascending fitness goals, and let the weight loss happen as a by-product, because if I focus on weight loss, I make myself absolutely miserable.( I was a chubby kid, and the adults around me made it THE topic of my life starting at about age 7.) It'd probably be faster if I did WW, but after a huge weight drop in the '80's doing Nutrisystem for a year - and then an even huge-r weight return - I can't stand the idea of "diets", groups, etc. I have worked with a nutritionist and would like to get back to keeping a food journal. It does help to keep the awareness up. DH can eat all dang day, so I have to be careful about just "joining in" to be sociable.

I have cut down on emotional eating, first of all by not having the junk foods of choice in the house. If I want to drown my sorrows in a pint of Ben & Jerry's, I gotta drive to a store first. Also, a pair of helpful questions that I think I might have picked up from Oprah some time back -

1)What am I feeling?
2)What do I need?

Exercise keeps me on a much more even keel emotionally. Besides cycling, I do yoga and weightlifting. I couldn't tell you how long it's been since I had one of those depressive periods where I lost myself in re-reading old novels and downing ice cream or chips. Even writing this, I think, really, I used to do that? - when it used to be common practice.
Now my emotional boost comes from riding down a great new road, or...well, this week at work, when I was picking a karaoke tune to do with my brain-injury clients, a VERY attractive younger coworker suggested "Bootylicious" and when I looked at him in shock, he smiled and said "did I say that out loud?"

I'll take that memory over a big bowl of buttered popcorn any day.

[mountainpuddles]

I would like to join in too!! Last Wednesday, I went to the Breast Cancer Fundraiser and Emily with her guitar sang her love song that was sooo cute. A line was something like this, "I go to the gym one hour a day because everyday you see me naked in the shower". Sorry if I am butchering the lyric but it was so cute.


I would like this to be a public discussion. Thanks B.

[ReneeLynne]

WeightWatchers Online is the best. You don't have to go to meetings, and they don't make your menu for you like eDiets (eDiets is great, but they make a whole new menu for you instead of teaching you how to modify you're current menu). So I had better luck with WW Online. www.weightwatchers.com. It's like $17/month. Lost over 18 lbs and it was pretty easy. People kept asking me how I did it and I've referred them all there. Plus, you get to count your cycling and eat more in compensation, so it really rewards you for exercise!!!!